Does politicizing economic inequality impact positively on parties' approval rates? Economic demand-side explanations of populism focus on economic inequality as a predictor of the recent rise of populism. However, the literature has neglected the role of the supply side's discursive strategies in shaping perceptions of inequality and consequently influencing approval rates. This paper studies the interaction of the demand and supply sides, making use of an original dataset of Facebook posts by Italian politicians. Results show that populist parties politicize different nuances of inequality. Furthermore, while established parties are increasingly more populist in their discursive strategies, conservatives have tapped into the inequality rhetoric. Last, exploiting exogenous shocks in the debate over inequality, the paper shows that talking about inequality impacts on parties' approval rates, on top of economic and political factors, depending on politicians' ideological leaning and whether they are in office or not.